LETTER OF THE DAY: The only person who is always successful at gambling is the bookie

Staff reporter

While lowering the ante on the fixed odds betting terminals appears to be a fruitful step forward, I don’t believe it will make any difference whatsoever.

The type of person who once bet, say £100 a spin, is most likely to be a compulsive gambler so £2 a go would be a walk in the park for them.

Whether they have £10, £100 or £10,000 they will bet away until it’s all gone.

With the lower stake it will take longer, but go it surely will.

Sadly there are many cases of compulsive gamblers lying, cheating stealing, with broken homes and marriages etc to get money to support their habit.

There is of course help available for these people but they have to really want to kick their compulsion to succeed.

I forget the exact words, but essentially Mickey Rooney the Hollywood film star was once asked about gambling, he said: ‘You know I once lost $10 at a race track when I was younger, since then I’ve spent the last 40 years and $6,000,000 trying to get it back.’

That just about sums up the futility of gambling,

After all, the only person who is always successful at gambling is the bookie.